Etymologically
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stock

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /stɒk/, US /stɑːk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stok,[2][3] inherited from Old English stocc (“stump, post, stake; trunk of a tree; log”),[4][3] from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz,[3][5] the source also of Old Frisian and Old Saxon stok, Dutch stok “stick, cane”, German Stock “stick” and Old Norse stokkr “block of wood, tree trunk”;[3][4][5] Old English stycce and German Stück “piece” are related.[3][5] Most scholars doubt that there are cognates outside Germanic.[3][5] Etymonline gives an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *(s)teu- (“to push, knock”), while Boutkan prefers the root *sta- “to stand, be firm”.[4] Old French estoc and Italian stocco are borrowings from Germanic.[3] The verb and the adjective are from the noun.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tree trunk, the stump of a tree: Old English, 862.[6] Middle English stocke is from probably before 1200, in Layamon.[3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning “lineage, ancestry” is first found in the Ormulum, probably before 1200, a figurative use of the trunk.[3][4] The stem in which a graft is set is from about 1300.[3] The stocks, a wooden frame for punishing offenders, is from before 1325, from the sense “post, stake”.[3][4] From the trunk came the heavy main part of a tool, and the part of a gun held against the shoulder, from 1541.[3][4] The commercial senses are found originally only in English and their origin is uncertain:[3] a supply for future use is from 1428, a sum of money from probably 1419, and the capital of a company divided into shares from before 1692.[3] They may come from the idea of a trunk from which gains grow, or of a fixed foundation, or from an obsolete sense “money-box”.[3][4][7] Livestock, broth from boiled meat (1764) and a theatre company playing a fixed set of plays (1708) followed.[4] The verb, “to supply with stock”, is from 1622,[3] and the adjective, “kept regularly in stock”, from before 1625;[3] “commonplace, trite”, as in a stock answer, is first recorded in Swift in 1738.[3] Take stock in, “to trust”, is from 1870.[4] Compounds include stockbroker (1706), stock exchange (1773) and stock market (1809).[3]

Timeline

  • 862 – a tree trunk.[6]
  • before 1200 – lineage.[3]
  • before 1325 – the stocks; verb, to put in the stocks.[3]
  • 1428 – a supply for future use.[3]
  • 1541 – the stock of a gun.[3]
  • before 1692 – a company's capital in shares.[3]
  • 1706 – stockbroker.[3]
  • 1738 – adjective, trite.[3]
  • 1764 – broth.[4]
  • 1809 – stock market.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A supply of goods kept for sale or use; inventory.
  2. The capital of a company, divided into shares; a share or shares in it.
  3. Farm animals; livestock.
  4. A person's ancestry or family line: of Irish stock.
  5. A liquid made by boiling meat, fish or vegetables, used for soup.
  6. The part of a rifle or other gun held against the shoulder.
  7. the stocks: A wooden frame with holes for the feet, formerly used for punishment.
  8. A plant on which a graft is set; a plant of the genus Matthiola, grown for its scented flowers.

Verb

  1. To keep a supply of for sale.
  2. To provide with a stock: stock a lake with fish.

Adjective

  1. Kept regularly in stock: stock sizes.
  2. Commonly used; conventional or trite: a stock phrase.

Word family

  • stockage
  • stocker
  • stocklike
  • overstock
  • restock
  • stocking
  • stockade
  • stocky
  • stockpile
  • livestock

Usage notes

Separate words spelled stock include an obsolete thrusting sword, from French estoc,[8][6] a geological mass of intrusive rock, from German Stock,[8][2] and an Old English and Scots word for a horn or trumpet.[6] On the Isle of Wight stock meant “strong, muscular”.[9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)